"Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,
Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in the pitched battle heard
Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"
SHAKSPEARE.
The action was a series of those grand manoeuvres in which the Prussians
excelled all the other troops of Europe. From the spot on which I stood,
the whole immense plain, to the foot of the defiles of Argonne, was
visible; but the combat, or rather the succession of combats, was fought
along the range of hills at the distance of some miles. These I could
discover only by the roar of the guns, and by an occasional cloud of smoke
rising among the trees. The chief Prussian force stood in columns in the
plain below me, in dark masses, making an occasional movement in advance
from time to time, or sending forth a mounted officer to the troops in
action. Parks of artillery lay formed in the spaces between the columns,
and the baggage, a much more various and curious sight than the troops,
halting in the wide grounds of what seemed some noble mansion, had already
begun to exhibit the appearance of a country fair. Excepting this busy
part of the scene, few things struck me as less like what I had conceived
of actual war, than the quietness of every thing before and around me. The
columns might nearly as well have been streets of rock; and the engagement
in front was so utterly lost to view in the forest, that, except for the
occasional sound of the cannon, I might have looked upon the whole scene
as the immense picture of a quiet Flemish holiday. The landscape was
beautiful. Some showery nights had revived the verdure, of which France
has so seldom to boast in autumn; and the green of the plain almost
rivalled the delicious verdure of home. The chain of hills, extending for
many a league, was covered with one of the most extensive forests of the
kingdom. The colours of this vast mass of foliage were glowing in all the
powerful hues of the declining year, and the clouds, which slowly
descended upon the horizon, with all the tinges of the west burning
through their folds, appeared scarcely more than a loftier portion of
those sheets of gold and purple which shone along the crown of the hills.
But while I lingered, gazing on the rich and tranquil luxury of the scene,
almost forgetting that there was war in the world, I was suddenly recalled
to a more substantial condition of that world by the sound of a trumpet,
and the arrival of my troop, who had at length struggled up the hill,
evidently surprised at finding me there, when the suttlers were in full
employment within a few hundred yards below. Their petition was unanimous,
to be allowed to refresh themselves and their horses at this rare
opportunity; and their request, though respectful in its words, yet was so
decisive in its tone, that to comply was fully as much my policy as my
inclination. I mounted my horse, and proceeded, according to the humble
"command" of my brave dragoons. This was a most popular movement--the men,
the very horses, evidently rejoiced. The fatigue of our hard riding was
past in a moment--the riders laughed and sang, the chargers snorted and
pranced; and, when we trotted, huzzaing, into the baggage lines, half
their motley crowd evidently conceived that some sovereign prince was come
in fiery haste to make the campaign. We were received with all the
applause that is given by the suttler to all arrivals with a full purse in
the holsters, and a handsome valise, no matter from what source filled, on
the croupe of the charger. But we had scarcely begun to taste the gifts
that fortune had sent us in the shape of huge sausages and brown
bread--the _luxuries!_ for which the soldier of Teutchland wooes the
goddess of war--than we found ourselves ordered to move off the ground, by
the peremptory mandate of a troop of the Royal Guard, who had followed our
movement, more hungry, more thirsty, and more laced and epauleted than
ourselves. The Hulans tossed their lances; and it had nearly been a
business of cold steel, when their officer rode up, to demand the sword of
the presumptuous mutineer who had thus daringly questioned his right to
starve us. While I was deliberating for a moment between the shame of a
forced retreat, and the awkwardness of taking the bull by the horns, in
the shape of the King's Guard, I heard a loud laugh, and my name
pronounced, or rather roared, in the broadest accents of Germany. My
friend Varnhorst was the man. The indefatigable and good-humoured
Varnhorst, who did every thing, and was every where, was shaking my hand
with the honest grasp of his honest nature, and congratulating me on my
return.
"We have to do with a set of sharp fellow," said he, "in these French; a
regiment of their light cavalry has somehow or other made its way between
the columns of our infantry, and has been picking up stragglers last night.
The duke, with whom you happen to have established a favouritism that
would make you a chamberlain at the court of Brunswick, if you were not
assassinated previously by the envy of the other chamberlains, or pinked
by some lover of the "_dames d'honneur_," was beginning to be uneasy about
you; and, as I had the peculiar good fortune of the Chevalier Marston's
acquaintance, I was sent to pick him up if he had fallen in honourable
combat in the plains of Champagne, or if any fragment of him were
recoverable from the hands of the peasantry, to preserve it for the family
mausoleum."
I anxiously enquired the news of the army, and the progress of the great
operation which was then going on.
"We have beaten every thing before us for these three hours," was the
answer. "The resistance in the plain was slight, for the French evidently
intended to make their stand only in the forest. But the duke has pushed
them strongly on the right flank; and, as you may perceive, the attack
goes on in force." He pointed to the entrance of one of the defiles, where
several columns were in movement, and where the smoke of the firing lay
heavily above the trees. He then laid his watch on the table beside our
champagne flask. "The time is come to execute another portion of my orders.
What think you of following me, and seeing a little of the field."
"Nothing could delight me more. I am perfectly at your service."
"Then mount, and in five minutes I shall allow you one of the first
officers in Europe, the Count Clairfait, he is a Walloon, 'tis true, and
has the ill luck to be an Austrian brigadier besides, and, to finish his
misfortune, has served only against the Turks. But for all that, if any
man in the army now in the field is fit to succeed to the command, that
man is the Count Clairfait. I only wish that he were a Prussian."
"Has he had any thing to do in this campaign?"
"Every thing that has been done. He has commanded the whole advance guard
of the army; and let me whisper this in your ear--if his advice had been
taken a week ago, we should by this time have been smoking our cigars in
the Palais Royal."
"I am impatient to be introduced to the Comte; let us mount and ride on."
He looked at his watch again.
"Not for ten minutes to come. If I made my appearance before him five
minutes in advance of the time appointed by my orders, Clairfait would
order me into arrest if I were his grandmother. He is the strictest
disciplinarian between this and the North Pole."
"A faultless monster himself, I presume."
"Nearly so; he has but one fault--he is too fond of the sabre and bayonet.
'Charge,' is his word of command. His school was among the Turks, and he
fights _à la Turque_."
"I should like him the better for it. That dash and daring is the very
thing for success."
"Ay, ay--edge and point are good things in their way. But they are the
temptations of the general. Frederick's maxim was--The bullet for the
infantry, the spur for the dragoon. The weight of fire is the true test of
infantry, the rapidity of charge is the true test of cavalry. The business
of a general is manoeuvring--to menace masses by greater masses, to throw
the weight of an army on a flank, to pierce a centre while the flanks were
forced to stand and see it beaten; these were Frederick's lessons to his
staff: and if Clairfait shall go on, with his perpetual hand to hand work,
those sharp Frenchmen will soon learn his trade, and perhaps pay him back
in his own coin. But, Halt squadron. Dress--advance in parade order."
While I was thus taking my first tuition in the art of heroes, we had rode
through a deep ravine, from which, with some difficulty, we had struggled
our way to a space of more level ground. Our disorder on reaching it,
required all the count's ready skill to bring us into a condition fit for
the eye of this formidable Austrian. But before we were complete, a group
of mounted officers were seen coming from a column of glittering lances
and sabres, resting on the distant verge of the plain. My friend
pronounced the name of Clairfait, and I was introduced to the officer who
was afterwards to play so distinguished a part in the gallant and
melancholy history of the Flemish fields. I had pictured to myself the
broad, plump face of the Walloon. I say a countenance, darkened probably
by the sultry exposure of his southern campaigns, but of singular depth
and power. It was impossible to doubt, that within the noble forehead
before me, was lodged an intelligence of the first order. His manners were
cold, yet not uncourteous, and to me he spoke with more than usual
attention. But when he alluded to the proceedings of the day, and was
informed by Varnhorst that the time appointed for his movement was come, I
never saw a more rapid transition from the phlegm of the Netherlander to
the vividness of the man of courage and genius. Waiting with his watch in
his hand for the exact moment appointed in the brief despatch, it had no
sooner arrived than the word was given, and his whole force, composed of
Austrian light infantry and cavalry, moved forward. Nothing could be more
regular than the march for the first half mile; but we then entered a
portion of the forest, or rather its border, thinly scattered over an
extent of broken country: to preserve the regularity of a movement along a
high-road, soon began to be wholly impossible. The officers soon gave up
the attempt in despair, and the troops enjoyed the disorder in the highest
degree. The ground was so intersected with small trenches, cut by the
foresters, that every half dozen yards presented a leap, and the clumps of
bushes made it continually necessary to break the ranks. Wherever I looked,
I now saw nothing but all the animation of an immense skirmish, the use of
sabre and pistol alone excepted. Between two and three thousand cavalry,
mounted on the finest horses of Austria and Turkey, galloping in all
directions, some springing over the rivulets, some dashing through the
thickets, all in the highest spirits, calling out to each other, laughing
at each other's mishaps, their horses in as high spirits as themselves,
bounding, rearing, neighing, springing like deer; trumpets sounding,
standards tossing, officers commanding in tones of helpless authority, to
which no one listened, and at which they themselves often laughed. The
whole, like a vast school broke loose for a holiday; the most joyous,
sportive, and certainly the most showy display that had ever caught my eye.
The view strongly reminded me of some of the magnificent old hunting
pieces by Snyders, the field sports of the Archduke Ferdinand, with the
landscape and horses by Rubens and Jordaens: there we had every thing but
the stag or the boar and the dogs. We had the noble trees, the rich deep
glades, the sunny openings, the masses of green; and all crowded with life.
But how infinitely superior in interest! No holiday sport, nor imperial
pageant, but an army rushing into action; one of the great instruments of
human power and human change called into energy. Thousands of bold lives
about to be periled; a victory about to be achieved, which might fix the
fate of Europe; or perhaps losses to be sustained which might cover the
future generation with clouds; and all this is on the point of being done.
No lazy interval to chill expectancy; within the day, within the hour, nay,
within the next five hundred yards, the decisive moment might be come.
Still we rushed on; the staff pausing from time to time to listen to the
distant cannonade, and ascertain by its faintness or loudness, the
progress of the attack which had been made on the great centre and right
defiles of the forest. In one of these, while I had ridden up as near as
the broken ground would suffer me, towards Count Clairfait, he made a
gesture to me to look upwards, and I saw, almost for the first time, a
smile on his countenance. I followed the gesture, and saw, what to me was
the novelty of a huge shell, leisurely as it seemed, traversing the air.
The Count and his staff immediately galloped in all directions; but I had
not escaped a hundred yards, when the shell dropped into the spot where I
had been standing, and burst with a tremendous explosion almost
immediately on its touching the ground. The cavalry had dispersed and the
explosion was, I believe, without injury. But this, at least, gave
evidence that the enemy were not far off, and the eagerness of the troops
was excited to the highest pitch: all pressed forward to the front, and
their cries, in all the languages of the frontier of Europe, the voices of
the officers, and the clangour of the bugles and trumpets became an
absolute Babel, but an infinitely bold and joyous one. The yagers were now
ordered to clear the way, and a thousand Tyrolese and Transylvanian
sharpshooters rushed forward to line the border. A heavy firing commenced,
and the order was given to halt the cavalry until the effect of the fire
was produced. This was speedily done; the enemy, evidently in inferior
force and unprepared for this attack, gave way, and the first squadrons
which reached the open ground made a dash among them, and took the greater
part prisoners.
This whole day was full of splendid exhibitions. On reaching the edge of
the wood, the first object below us as the succession of deep columns
which I had seen some hours before, and which appeared to have been rooted
to the ground ever since. But an aide-de-camp from the circle where the
count stood, darted down on the plain, and, as if a flash of lightning had
awoke them, all were instantly in motion. The columns on the right now
made a sudden rush forward, and to my surprise, four or five strong
brigades, which rapidly followed from the centre, took up their position.
Varnhorst, who had been beside me during the whole day, now exhibited
great delight. "I told you," said he, "that Clairfait would turn out well.
I see that he has been taught in our school. Observe that manoeuvre;" he
continued his comment with increasing force of gesture--"That was the
Great Frederic's favourite, the oblique formation. The finest invention in
tactics, with that he gained Rosbach, and beat the French and Austrians;
with that he gained the battle of Breslau; and with that he gained the
grand fight of Torgau, and finished the war. Yet the king always said that
he had learned the manoeuvre from Epaminondas, and was only fighting the
battle of Leuctra over again. But look there!" He pointed to a rising
ground, a bluff of the forest ridge, to which a battalion of sharpshooters
were hastening; it had seemed destitute of defence, and the sharpshooters
were already beginning to scramble up its sides; when on the instant a
large body of the enemy which had been covered by the forest, rushed upon
its summit with a shout, and poured down a general volley. The whole
Prussian line returned it by one tremendous discharge. The drums and
trumpets struck up, the battalions and squadrons advanced, singing their
national hymn. The skirmishers poured forward and the battle began. How
shall I speak of what I felt at that moment; the sensation was
indescribable! It was mingled of all feelings but personal. I was absorbed
in that glorious roar, in that bold burst of human struggle, in all that
was wild, ardent, and terrible in the power of man. I had not a thought of
any thing but of the martial pomp and spirit-stilling grandeur of the
scene before me. I was aroused from my contemplations by the loud laugh
of my veteran friend; he was trying the benefit of a large brandy flask,
which I remembered, and with some not very respectful opinion of his
temperance, to have seen him place in one of his holsters at our visit to
the suttlers. He now offered it to me. "You look wretchedly pale," said he;
"our kind of life is too rough for you gentlemen _diplomats_, and you will
find this glass right Nantz, the very best thing, if not the only good
thing, that its country has to give." This took me down from my heroics at
once, the brandy was first-rate, and I found myself restored to the level
of the world at once, and infinitely the better for the operation. We now
followed the advance of the troops. The leading columns had already forced
their way into the entrance of the forest; but it was a forest of three
leagues' depth and twice the number in length, a wooded province, and the
way was fought foot by foot. It is only justice to the French to say, that
they fought well--held the pass boldly--often charged our advance, and
gave way only when they were on the point of being surrounded. But our
superiority of discipline and numbers combined, did not suffer the success
to be for a moment doubtful. Still, as we followed, the battle raged in
the depths of the forest, already as dark as if night had come on--our
only light the incessant illumination of the musketry, and the bursts of
fire from the howitzers and guns.
As we were standing on the last height at the entrance of the defile,
"Look round," exclaimed Varnhorst, "and take your first lesson in our art,
if you ever adopt the trade of soldiership. The Duke has outwitted the
Frenchman. I suspected something of this sort in the morning, when I first
heard his guns so far to the right. I allow that the enemy may be puzzled
for a while who has five passes to defend, with half a dozen leagues
between them, and a Prussian army in front ready to make him choose. He
has evidently drawn off the strength of his troops to the Duke's point of
attack, and has stripped the wing before us. Clairfait's mass has been
thrown upon it, and the day is our own. Onward."
The roads and the surrounding glades gave fearful evidence of the
obstinacy of the struggle; but it also gave some curious evidence of the
force of habit in making light of the troubles of life. The cavalry, which
had been comparatively unemployed, from the nature of the service during
the day, had taken advantage of the opportunity to consult their own
comfort as much as possible. On the flank and rear of the infantry the
troopers had taken the whole affair _en amateur_, and had lit their
campfires, cooked their rations, handsomely augmented by the general
spoliation of the hen-coops within many a league. Something like a fair
was established round them by the suttlers; while the shells were actually
falling and many a branch was shattered over their banquets by the shot
which constantly whizzed through the trees. But, "_Vive la fortune!_" Even
the sober Teuton and the rough son of the Bannat could enjoy the few
moments that war gives to festivity, and what the next night or morning
might bring was not suffered to disturb their sense of "schnapps," and
their supper.
The trampling of horses in our rear, and the galloping of the chasseurs of
the ducal escort, now told us that the generalissimo was at hand. He rode
up in high spirits, received our congratulations with princely courtesy,
and bestowed praises on the troops, and especially on Clairfait, which
made the count's dark features absolutely glow. The whole group rode
together until we reached the open country. A decisive success had
unquestionably been gained; and in war the first success is of proverbial
importance. On this point, the duke laid peculiar weight on the few words
which he could spare to me.
"M. Marston," he observed, taking me cordially by the hand, "we are
henceforth more than friends, we are camarades. We have been in the field
together; and, with us Prussians, that is a tie for life."
I made my acknowledgments for his highness's condescension. Business then
took the lead.
"You will now have a good despatch to transmit to our friends in England.
The Count Clairfait has shown himself worthy of his reputation. I
understand that the enemy's force consisted chiefly of the household
troops of France; if so, we have beaten the best soldiers of the kingdom,
and the rest can give us but little trouble. You will remark upon these
points; and now for Paris."
A cry, or rather a shout of assent from the circle of officers, echoed the
words, and we all put spurs to our horses, and followed the _cortège_
through the noble old groves. But before we reached its confines, the
firing had wholly ceased, and the enemy were hurrying down the slope of
the Argonne, and crossing in great disorder a plain which separated them
from their main body. Our light troops and cavalry were dashing in pursuit,
and prisoners were continually taken. From the spot where we halted, the
light of the sinking day showed us the rapid breaking up of the fugitive
column, the guns, one by one, left behind; the muskets thrown away; and
the soldiers scattered, until our telescopes could discover scarcely more
than a remnant reaching the protection of the distant hill.
We supped that night on the green sward. The duke had invited his own
staff, and that of Clairfait, to his tent, in honour of the day, and I
never spent a gayer evening. His incomparable finish of manners, mingled
with the cordiality which no man could more naturally assume when it was
his pleasure, and his mixture of courtly pleasantry with the bold humour
which campaigning, in some degree, teaches to every one, made him, if
possible, more delightful, to my conception, than even in our first
interview. Towards the close of the supper, which, like every thing else
round him, was worthy of Sardanapalus, he addressed himself to me, and
giving a most gracious personal opinion of what my "services had merited
from the English minister," said that, "limited as his own means of
rewarding zeal and ability might be, he begged of me to retain a slight
memorial of his friendship, and of our day together on the heights of
Argonne." Taking from the hand of Guiscard the riband and star of the
"Order of Merit," the famous order instituted by the Great Frederic, he
placed it round my neck, and proposed my health to the table as a "Knight
of Prussia."
This was a flattering distinction, and, if I could have had entire faith
in all the complimentary language addressed to me by the sitters at that
stately table, I should have had visions of very magnificent things. But
there is no antidote to vanity equal to an empty purse. If I had been born
to one of the leviathan fortunes of our peerage, I might possibly have
imagined myself possessed of all the talents of mankind, and with all its
distinctions waiting for my acceptance; but I never could forget the grave
lesson that I was a younger son. I sat, like the Roman in his triumph,
with the slave, to lecture him, behind. However, I had a more ample
evidence of the sincerity with which those compliments were paid, in the
higher degree of trust reposed in me from day to day.
After the repast was ended, and the principal part of the guests had
withdrawn, I was desired to wait for the communication of important
intelligence--Guiscard and Varnhorst being the only officers of the staff
who remained. A variety of papers, taken in the portfolio of one of the
French generals who had fallen in the engagement of the day, were laid
before us, and our little council proceeded to examine them. They were of
a very various kind, and no bad epitome of the mind of a gallant and
crackbrained coxcomb. Reflections on the conduct of the Allied armies, and
conjectures on their future proceedings--both of so fantastic a kind, that
the duke's gravity often gave way, and even the grim Guiscard sometimes
wore a smile. Then came in a letter from some "_confrère_" in Paris, a
tissue of gossip and grumbling, anecdotes of the irregularities of private
life, and merciless abuse of the leaders of party. Interspersed with those
were epistles of a more tender description; from which it appeared that
the general's heart was as capacious as his ambition, and that he
contrived to give his admiration to half a dozen of the _élite_ of
Parisian beauty at a time. Varnhorst was delighted with this portion of
the correspondence; even the presence of the duke could not prevent him
from bursting into explosions of laughter; and he ended by imploring
possession of the whole, as models of his future correspondence, in any
emergency which compelled him to put pen to paper in matters of the sex.
But nearly the last of the documents in the portfolio was one deserving of
all attention. It was a statement of the measures which had been enjoined
by the Republican government for raising the population in arms; and, as
an appendix, the muster-roll of the various corps which were already on
their way to join the army of Dumourier. The duke read this paper with a
countenance from which all gaiety had vanished and handed it to Guiscard
to read aloud.
"What think you of that, gentlemen?" asked the duke, in his most
deliberate tone.
Varnhorst, in his usual unhesitating style, said--"It tells us only that
we shall have some more fighting; but, as we are sure to beat them, the
more the better. Your highness knows as well as any man alive, that the
maxim of our great master was, 'Begin the war by fighting as many pitched
battles as you can. Skirmishes teach discipline to the rabble; allow the
higher orders time to escape, the government to tamper, and to encourage
the resistance of all. Pitched battles are thunderbolts; they finish the
business at once; and, like the thunderbolts, they appear to come from a
source which defies resistance by man.'"
"I think," said Guiscard, with his deep physiognomy still darkening, "that
we lost, what is the most difficult of all things to recover--time."
The duke bit his lip. "How was it to be helped, Guiscard? _You_ know the
causes of the delay; they were many and stubborn."
"Ay," was the reply, with an animation, which struck me with surprise, "as
many as the blockheads in Berlin, and as stubborn as the rock under our
feet, or the Aulic council."
"Well," said the duke, turning to me, with his customary grace of
manner--"What does our friend, the Englishman, say?"
Of course, I made no pretence to giving a military opinion. I merely said,
"That I had every reliance on the experienced conduct of his highness, and
on the established bravery of his army."
"The truth is, M. Marston, as Guiscard says, we _have_ lost time, though
it is no fault of ours, and I observe, from these papers, that the enemy
availed themselves of the delay, by bringing up strong corps from every
point. Still, our duty lies plain before us; we _must_ advance, and rescue
the unfortunate royal family--we _must_ tranquillize France, by
overthrowing the rabble influence, which now threatens to subvert all law;
and having done that, we may then retire, with the satisfaction of having
fought without ambition, and been victorious without a wish for
aggrandizement." After a pause, which none attempted to interrupt, he
finished by saying--"I admit that our work is likely to become more
difficult than I had supposed."
Varnhorst's sanguine nature bore this with visible reluctance. "Pardon me,
your highness, but my opinion is for instant action, whatever may happen.
Let us but move to-morrow morning, and I promise you another battle of
Rosbach within the next twelve hours." The idea was congenial to the
gallantry of the duke; he smiled, and shook the bold speaker by the hand.
"I see, by these lists," said Guiscard, as he slowly perused the returns,
"that the troops with which we have been engaged to-day amounted to little
more than twenty thousand men, under the new general, Dumourier. They
fought badly, I think. I scarcely expected that they would have fought at
all since the emigration of their officers. Sixteen or eighteen thousand
men are already moving up from Flanders; a strong corps under my old
acquaintance and countryman, Kellerman--and whatever he may be as an
officer, a bolder and braver veteran does not exist--are coming, by forced
marches, from the Rhine; the sea-coast towns are stripped of their
garrisons, to supply a supplementary force; and I should not be surprised
to find that we rather under, than over, calculated the force which will
be in line against us within a week.
"So be it!" exclaimed Varnhorst, "What are troops without discipline, and
generals without science? Both made to be beaten. The fifty thousand
Prussians with us would march through Europe. I am for the advance. That
was a brilliant dash of Clairfait's this afternoon. Let us match it
to-morrow morning."
"It was admirable!" replied the duke, with the colour mounting to his
cheek. "Any officer in Europe might envy the decision, the daring, and the
success. His sagacity in discovering the weak point of the enemy's
position, and his skill in its attack, deserve all praise. His flank
movement _was_ perfectly admirable."
"Well, we have only to try him again," exclaimed Varnhorst, with
increasing animation. "We have turned the position, and taken a thousand
prisoners and some guns. Our men are in high spirits; and, if I were in
command of a corps to-morrow, my only countersign would be--'Paris.'"
"Varnhorst," said the duke, "you have only anticipated my intention with
regard to yourself. You shall have a command; the three brigades of
Prussian grenadiers shall be given into your charge, and you shall operate
on the flank. It is my wish to make our principal movement in that
direction, and I _know_ you well."
Varnhorst's gratitude almost denied him words; but his countenance spoke
better than his tongue.
One of those papers contained a detail of several projects by the leading
members of the Assembly for the government of France. Guiscard, after
bending his wise head over them, pronounced them all equally futile, and
equally tending to democracy. The duke was of the opposite opinion, and
after a glance at the papers, observed--"that he thought some of those
schemes ingenious; but that they so closely resembled the ideas thrown out
in Germany, under the patronage of the Emperor Joseph, as to deprive them
of any strong claim to originality." "No," said he gaily, "I shall never
believe that Frenchmen are changed, until I hear that there is no ballet
in Paris; you might as well tell me, that the Swiss will abjure the money
which makes a part of his distinction, as the Frenchman give up the laced
coat, the powdered queue, and the order of St Louis at his buttonhole.
Those things are the man, they are his mind, his senses, himself. He is a
creation of monarchy--a clever, amusing, ingenious, and brave one; but
rely upon my knowledge of human nature--if French nature be any thing of
the kind--that Paris, a capital without balls, and a government without
embroidery, will disgust him beyond all forgiveness. It is my opinion,
that if democracy were formed to-morrow, it would be danced away in a week;
or if every pedigree in France were burned in this evening's fire, you
would have the Boulevards crowded with marquises and marchionesses before
the month was over. Is my friend _un peu philosophe_?" He laughed at his
own picture of a revolution, and his pleasantry of manner would have made
his sentiments popular on any subject. Still, our long-headed friend,
Guiscard, was not to be convinced.
"I may have every contempt," said he, in a hurried tone, "for the
shallowness of idlers and talkers attempting to mould men by theories; but
the question whether France is to remain a monarchy or not, is one of the
most pressing importance to your highness's operations. It is only in this
practical sense that I should think of the topic at all. You have taken
the frontier towns, and have beaten the frontier army. Thus, so far as the
regular force of France is concerned, the war is at an end. But then comes
the grand point. A country of thirty millions of people cannot be
conquered, if they can but be roused to resist. All the troops of
Europe--nay, perhaps all the princes of the earth--might perish before
they fully conquered a country so large as France, with so powerful a
population. This seems even to be one of the provisions of Providence
against ambition, that an invasion of a populous country is the most
difficult operation in the world, unless the people welcome the invader.
It gives every ditch the character of a fortress, and every man the spirit
of a soldier. I recollect no instance in European history, where an
established kingdom was conquered by invasion. They all stand at this hour,
as they stood a thousand years ago. In France, we found the people without
leaders, without troops, and without experience in war; of course they
have not resisted our hussars and guns. But they have not joined us. In
any other country of Europe, we should have recruits crowding to ask for
service. But the French farmer shuts up his house; the peasant flies; the
citizen barricades his gates, and gives a cannon-shot for an answer. The
whole land rejects us, if it dares not repel; and, if we conquer, we shall
have to colonize."
"Well, we must fight them into it," said Varnhorst.
"Or leave them to fight themselves out of it," I observed--"my national
prejudices not being favourable to reasoning at the point of the bayonet."
"Or take the chances of the world, and float on wherever the surge carries
us," laughed the duke.
But Guiscard was still inflexible. His deep eye flashed with a light which
I never could have looked for under those projecting brows. His cheek was
visited by a tinge which argued a passionate interest in the subject; and,
as he spoke, his tongue uttered a nervous and powerful eloquence, which
showed that Guiscard was thrown among camps, while he might have figured
in senates and councils. Of course, at this distance of time, I can offer
but a faint memory of his bold and spontaneous wisdom.
"I can see no result for France but democracy. This war is like no other
since the fall of the Roman Empire. It is a war of the passions. What man
can calculate the power of those untried elements? I implore your highness
to consider with the deepest caution every step to be taken from this
moment. Europe has no other commander whom it can place in a rank with
yourself; and if you, at the head of the first army of Europe, shall find
it necessary to retreat before the peasantry of France, it will form a
disastrous era in the art of war, and a still more disastrous omen to
every crowned head of Europe."
The duke looked uneasy. But he merely said with a smile--"My dear Guiscard,
we must keep these sentiments to ourselves in camp. You are a cosmopolite,
and look on these things with too refined a speculation. Like myself, you
have dined and supped with the Diderots and Raynals--pleasant people, no
doubt, but dangerous advisers."
"I have!" exclaimed his excited hearer; "and neither I, nor any other man,
would have met them without admiring their talents. But I always looked on
their _coterie_ as a sort of moral lunatics, the madder the more light
they have."
"Our question is simply one of fact," said the duke.
"Yes, and of a fact on which the fate of Europe hinges at this moment! The
monarchy of France is already cloven down. What wild shape of power is now
to take up its fallen sword? The sovereignty of time, laws, and loyalty
are in the grave, and the funeral rites will be bloody; but what hand is
to make the ground of that grave firm enough to bear the foundations of a
new throne?
"The heels of our boots and the hoofs of our horses will trample it solid
enough!" exclaimed Varnhorst.
"The much stronger probability is," replied Guiscard, "that they will
trample it into a mire so deep, that we may reckon the Allied powers
fortunate if they can draw themselves out of it. France is revolutionized
irrecoverably. Three things have been done within the last three months,
any one of which would overthrow the strongest government on the Continent.
By confiscating the property of the nobles, she has set the precedent for
breaking down all property, thrown the prize into the hands of the
populace, and thus, after corrupting them by the robbery, has bound them
by the bribe. By destroying and banishing the persons of the nobility, she
has done more than extinguish an antagonist to the mob--she has swept away
a protector of the people. The provinces will henceforth be helpless;
Paris will be the sovereign, and Paris itself will have the mob for its
master. And by her third step, the ruin of the church, she has given the
death-blow to the few and feeble feelings which acknowledged higher
objects than those of the hour. The pressing point for us, is, how the
Revolution will act upon the military spirit of the nation. The French nay
succumb; but they make good soldiers, they are the only nation in Europe
who have an actual fondness for war, who contemplate it as a pastime, and,
in spite of all their defeats, regard it as their natural path to power."
"But they fly before our squadrons," observed the duke.
"Yes, as schoolboys fly before their master, until they are strong enough
to rebel; or as the Indians fled before the lances and horses of Cortes,
until they became accustomed to them. It would be infinitely wiser to
leave the republicans to struggle with each other, than unite them by a
national attack. Mobs, like the wolves, always fall upon the first wounded.
The first faction that receives a blow in those campaigns of the Palais
Royal, will have all the others tearing it to fragments. The custom will
spread; every new drop of blood will let loose a torrent in retaliation;
and when France has thus been drained of her fever, will be the time,
either to restore her, or to paralyse for ever her power of disturbing the
world."
The sound of a gun from either flank of the army, reminded us that the
hour of the evening hymn had come. It broke up our council. The
incomparable harmony of so many thousand voices ascended into the air; and
at the discharge of another gun, all was still once more. The night had
now fallen, and the fatigues of the day made repose welcome. But the
conversation of the last hour made me anxious to obtain all the knowledge
of the actual state of the country, and the prospects of the campaign,
which could be obtained from Guiscard. Varnhorst, full of a soldier's
impetuosity, was gone to the quarters of his grenadiers, and was busy with
hurried preparations for the morrow. The duke had retired, and, through
the curtains of his tent, I could see the lamps by whose light his
secretaries were in attendance, and with whom he would probably pass the
greater part of the next twelve hours. With Guiscard I continued pacing up
and down in front of our quarters, listening to the observations of a mind
as richly stored, and as original, as I have ever met. He still persisted
in his conviction, "that we had come at the wrong time, either too early
or too late; _before_ the nation had grown weary of anarchy, and _after_
they had triumphed over the throne. "The rebound," said he energetically,
"will be terrible. Ten times our force would be thrown away in this war.
The army may drive all things before its front; but it will be assailed in
the rear, in the flanks--every where. It is like the lava which I have
seen pour down from Etna into the sea. It drove the tide before it, and
threw the water up in vapour; but they were too powerful for it after all.
And there stands the lava fixed and cold, and there roll the surges once
again, burying it from the sight of man."
A sudden harmony of trumpets, from various points of the vast encampment,
pierced the ear, and in another moment the whole line of the hills was
crowned with flame. The signal for lighting the fires of the Austrian and
Prussian outposts had been given, and the effect was almost magical. In
this army all things were done with a regularity almost perfect. The
trumpet spoke, and the answer was instantaneous. All comparisons are
feeble to realities of this order--seen, too, while the heart of man is
quickened to enjoy and wonder, and feels scarcely less than a new
existence in the stirring events every where round him. The first
comparison that struck me was the vague one of a shower of stars. The
mountain pinnacles were in a blaze. The general fires of the bivouacs soon
spread through the forest, and down the slopes of the hills, all round to
the horizon.
The night was fine, the air flowed refreshingly from the verdure of the
immense woods, and the scent of the thyme and flowers of the heath,
pressed by my foot, rose "wooingly on the air." All was calm and odorous.
The flourish of the evening trumpets still continued to swell in the rich
harmonies which German skill alone can breathe, and thoughts of the past
and the future began to steal over my mind. I was once more in England,
gazing on the splendid beauty of Clotilde; and imagining the thousand
forms in which my weary fortunes must be shaped, before I dared offer her
a share in my hopes of happiness. I saw Mariamne once more, with her smile
reminding me of Shakspeare's exquisite picture--
"Oh, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful,
In the contempt and anger of that lip!"
Then came a vision of my early home. The halls of Mortimer castle--the
feebly surviving parent there, whom I still loved--the heartless and
haughty brother--the pomp and pageantry to which he was born; while I was
flung out into the wilderness, like the son of the handmaid, to perish, or,
like him, escape only by a miracle. At that hour, perhaps, there were
revels in the house of my fathers, while their descendant was wandering on
a hill-side, in the midst of hostile armies, exposed to the chances of the
conflict, and possibly only measuring with his pace the extent of his
grave. But while I was thus sinking in heart, my hand, in making some
unconscious gesture, struck the badge of Frederic's order on my bosom.
What trifles change the current of human thoughts! That star threw more
light over my darkness than the thousand constellations that studded the
vault above my head. Success, honours, and public name, filled my mind. I
saw all things, events, and persons through a brilliant haze of hope; and
determining to follow fortune wherever she might lead me, abjured all
thoughts of calamity in my unfriended, yet resolute career. Is it to
consider the matter too curiously, to conceive that the laws of nature
affect the mind? or that the spirit of man resembles an instrument, after
all--an Aeolian harp, which owes all its pulses to the gusts that pass
across its strings, and in which it simply depends upon the stronger or
the feebler breeze, whether it shall smile with joyous and triumphant
chords, or sink into throbs and sounds of sorrow?
The galloping of horses roused me. It was Guiscard with an escort. "What!
not in your bed yet?" was his hurried salutation. "So much the better; you
will have a showy despatch to send to England to-night. Clairfait has just
outdone himself. He found that the French were retreating, and he followed
them without loss of time. His troops had been so dispersed by the service
of the day, that he could collect but fifteen hundred hussars; and with
these he gallantly set forth to pick up stragglers. His old acquaintance,
Chazot, whom he had beaten the day before, was in command of a rearguard
of ten thousand men. His fifteen hundred brave fellows were now exposed to
ruin; and doubtless, if they had exhibited any show of retreating, they
must have been ruined. But here Clairfait's _à la Turque_ style was
exactly in place. He ordered that not a shot should be fired, but that the
spur and sabre should do the business; and at once plunged into the mass
of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. In five minutes the whole were put to
the rout--guns, baggage, and ammunition taken; and the French
general-in-chief as much stripped of his rearguard, as ever a peacock was
plucked of his tail."
"Will the duke follow up the blow?" was my enquiry.
"Beyond doubt. I have just left him giving orders for the advancement of
the whole line at daybreak; and unless M. Dumouier is remarkably on the
alert, we shall have him supping in the camp within the next twenty-four
hours. But you will have better intelligence from himself; for he bade me
prepare you for meeting him, as he rides to the wing from which the march
begins."
"Excellent news! You and Varnhorst will be field-marshals before the
campaign is over." His countenance changed.
"No; my course unfortunately lies in a different direction. The duke has
been so perplexed, by the delays continually forced upon him by the
diplomacy of the Allied cabinets, that he has been more than once on the
point of giving up the command. Clairfait's success, and the prospect of
cutting off the retreat of the French, or of getting between them and
Paris, have furnished him with new materials; and I am now on my way to
Berlin, to put matters in the proper point of view. Farewell, Marston, I
am sorry to lose you as a comrade; but we _must_ meet again--no laurels
for _me_ now. The duke must not find me here; he will pass by within the
next five minutes."
The noble fellow sprang from his horse, and shook my hand with a fervour
which I had not thought to be in his grave and lofty nature.
"Farewell!" he uttered once more, and threw himself on his saddle, and was
gone.
I had scarcely lost the sound of his horse's hoofs, as they rattled up the
stony ravine of the hill, when the sound of a strong body of cavalry
announced the approach of the generalissimo. He soon rode up, and
addressed me with his usual courtesy. "I really am afraid, Mr Marston,
that you will think me in a conspiracy to prevent your enjoying a night's
rest, for all our meetings, I think, have been at the 'witching hour!' But
would you think it too much to mount your horse now, and ride with me,
before you send your despatches to your cabinet? I must visit the troops
of the left wing without delay; we can converse on the way."
I was all obedience, a knight of Prussia, and therefore at his highness's
service.
"Well, well, I thought so. You English gentlemen are ready for every thing.
In the mean time, while your horse is saddling, look over this letter.
That was a gallant attempt of Clairfait's, and, if we had not been too far
off to support him, we might have pounced upon the main body as
effectually as he did upon the rear. Chazot has escaped, but one of M.
Dumourier's aides-de-camp, a remarkably intelligent fellow, has been taken,
and on him has been found the papers which I beg you to peruse."
It was a letter from the commander-in-chief to the _Bureau de la Guerre_
in Paris.
"MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE,--I write this, after having been on horseback for
eighteen hours. We must have reinforcements without a moment's delay, or
we are lost--the honour of France is lost--France herself is lost. I have
with me less than 20,000 men to defend the road to Paris against 100,000.
The truth must be told--truth becomes a citizen. We have been beaten! I
have been unable to hold the passes of Argonne, and the enemy's hussars
are already scouring the country in my rear. I have sent order upon order
to Kellerman, and all my answer is, that he is preparing to advance; but
he has not stirred a step. I daresay, that he is playing trictrac at Metz
this moment.
"My march from the Argonne has been a bold manoeuvre, but it has cost us
something. Chazot, to whom I entrusted the protection of the march, and to
whom I had given the strictest orders to keep the enemy's light troops at
a distance, has suffered himself to be entrapped by those experienced
campaigners, and has lost men. Duval fought bravely at the head of his
brigade, and Miranda narrowly escaped being taken, in a dashing attempt to
save the park of artillery. He had a horse killed under him, and was taken
from the field insensible. Macdonald, who takes this, will explain more.
He is a promising officer--give him a step. In the mean time, send me
every man that you can. _France is in danger_."
"The object now," observed the duke, "will be, to press upon the enemy in
his present state of disorder, until we shall either be enabled to force
him to fight a pitched battle at a disadvantage, or strike in between him
and the capital. And now forward!"
I mounted, and we rode through the camp--the duke occasionally giving some
order for the morning to the officers commanding the successive divisions,
and conversing with me on the points in discussion between England and the
Allies. He was evidently dissatisfied with continental politics.
"The king and the emperor are both sincere; but that is more than I can
always say for those about them. We have too many Italians, and even
Frenchmen, at our German courts. They are republicans to a man; and, by
consequence, every important measure is betrayed. I can perceive, in the
manoeuvres of the enemy's general, that he must have been acquainted with
my last despatch from Berlin; and, I am so thoroughly persuaded of the
fact, that I mean to manoeuvre to-morrow on that conviction. The order
from Berlin is, that I shall act upon his flanks. Within two hours after
daylight I shall make a push for his centre; and, breaking through that,
shall separate his wings, and crush them at my leisure. One would think,"
said he, pausing, and looking round him with the exaltation of conscious
power, "that the troops had overheard us, and already anticipated a
victory."
The sight from the knoll, where we drew our bridles, was certainly of the
most striking kind. The fires, which at first I had seen glittering only
on the mountain tops, were now blazing in all quarters; in the cleared
spaces of the forest, on the heaths and in the ravines: the heaps of
fagots gathered for the winter consumption of the cities, by woodmen of
the district, were put in requisition, and the axes of the pioneers laid
many a huge larch and elm on the blaze. Soldiers seldom think much of
those who are to come after them; and the flames shot up among the
thickets with the most unsparing brilliancy. Cheerfulness, too, prevailed;
the sounds of laughter, and gay voices, and songs, arose on every side.
The well-preserved game of this huge hunting-ground, the old vexation of
the French peasant, now fell into hands which had no fear of the galleys
for a shot at a wild boar, or bringing down a partridge. The fires
exhibited many a substantial specimen of forest luxury in the act of
preparation. No man enjoys rest and food like the soldier. A day's
fighting and fasting gives a sense of delight to both, such as the man of
cities can scarcely conceive. No epicure at his most _recherché_ board
ever knew the true pleasure of the senses, equal to the campaigner
stretched upon the grass, until his supper was ready, and then sitting
down to it. I acknowledge, that to me that simple rest, and that simple
meal, often gave a sense of enjoyment which I have never even conceived in
the luxuries of higher life. The instantaneous sleep that followed; the
night without a restless moment; the awaking with all my powers refreshed,
and yet with as complete an unconsciousness of the hours past away, as if
I had lain down but the moment before, and started from night into
sunshine--all belong to the campaigner: he has his troubles, but his
enjoyments are his own, exclusive, delicious, incomparable.
An officer of the staff now rode up to make a report on some movement of
the division intended to lead in the morning, and the duke gave me
permission to retire. He galloped off in the direction of the column, and
I slowly pursued my way to my quarters. Yet I could not resist many a halt,
to gaze on the singular beauty of the bursts of flame which lighted the
landscape. More than once, it reminded me of the famous Homeric
description of the Trojan bivouac by the ships. All the images were the
same, except that, for the sea, we had the endless meadows of Champagne,
and, for the ships, the remote tents of the enemy. We had the fire, the
exulting troops, the carouse, the picketed horses, the shouts and songs,
the lustre of the autumnal sky, and the bold longings for victory and the
dawn. Even in Pope's feeble translation, the scene is animated--
"The troops exulting sate in order round,
And beaming fires illumined all the ground."
Then follows the famous simile of the moon, suddenly throwing its radiance
over the obscure features of the landscape.